1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to systems and methods for obtaining information regarding an item recipient, and more specifically, to methods and systems for obtaining information regarding an item recipient and for assisting users in purchasing items for the item recipient.
2. Description of the Related Art
Consumers are increasingly shopping and purchasing items from on-line merchants over the Internet. The Internet provides consumers access to a wealth of products for all types of peoples and age ranges. Often, consumers are searching for products for a user or an intended recipient within a certain age range. For example, grandparents may be searching for a product, such as a toy, appropriate for a two-year old grandchild. Many sites allow consumers to activate a link to products intended for a certain age group. In this example, a toy merchant site may have links for toys intended correspondingly for children in the age ranges of 0–1 year, 1–2 years, 3–5 years, and so on. By clicking on the 1–2 year link, the customer is presented with one or more toys intended for that age group. The customer may also directly provide the gift recipient's birthday for future reference, so that the merchant can send out yearly birthday reminders to the customer.
The conventional processes described above disadvantageously require customer effort. For example, these conventional processes require customers to actively select an age group link to view age appropriate items. Furthermore, in order to receive birthday reminders, the customer has to actively provide the date of the birthday to the merchant. Many customers will not take the time to provide such birth dates, and so are deprived of receiving reminders.
By contrast, the present invention advantageously infers user or gift recipient ages and/or birthdays, and automatically presents age-appropriate recommended items for purchase, thereby providing a more efficient and pleasant shopping experience.